Since Forbes hired me in 1995 to write a legal column, I’ve taken advantage of the great freedom the magazine grants its staff, to pursue stories about everything from books to billionaires. I’ve chased South Africa’s first black billionaire through a Cape Town shopping mall while admirers flocked around him, climbed inside the hidden chamber in the home of an antiquarian arms and armor dealer atop San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill, and sipped Chateau Latour with one of Picasso’s grandsons in the Venice art museum of French tycoon François Pinault. I’ve edited the magazine’s Lifestyle section and opinion pieces by the likes of John Bogle and Gordon Bethune. As deputy leadership editor, these days I mostly write about careers and corporate social responsibility. I got my job at Forbes through a brilliant libertarian economist, Susan Lee, whom I used to put on television at MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. Before that I covered law and lawyers for journalistic stickler, harsh taskmaster and the best teacher a young reporter could have had, Steven Brill.

President Obama's Speech in Newtown: Leadership At Its Best

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy, who spoke just before the President yesterday evening at an interfaith service in Newtown, Ct., said Obama told him that Friday had been the most difficult day of his presidency. For Obama, the mass shooting that left 20 six- and seven-year olds and seven adults dead, this was an incident that struck close to his heart, both as a father and as the leader of a country that has seen four mass shootings since he took office four years ago. His speech yesterday was a test of how the President would manage the precarious balancing act of serving as the nation’s consoler-in-chief while also leading on public policy changes that could somehow block a tragedy like this from ever happening again.

The President is extremely skilled at the consoler job. He knows how to make his message personal, empathetic and powerfully uplifting all at once, quoting choice bits of scripture to maximum effect and personalizing heartbreak by expressing his own feelings and the universal emotions of being a parent. As consolation, he said, “I am very mindful that mere words cannot match the depths of your sorrow, nor can they heal your wounded hearts. I can only hope that it helps for you to know, that you’re not alone in your grief. That our world, too, has been torn apart.”

I am not a religious person but I found the President’s biblical quote at the beginning of the speech deeply moving: “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven not built by human hands.”

The President also talked about how the adults killed in the tragedy, Dawn Hocksprung ,Mary Sherlach, Vicki Soto, Lauren Russeau, Rachel Davino and Anne Marie Murphy, had all acted heroically, giving their lives in an effort to save the children at Sandy Hook Elementary. He talked about the spirit and heroism of the teachers and the children who survived and even managed a note of levity, quoting a child who reassured a grown-up by saying, “I know karate, so it’s OK. I’ll lead the way out.”

Then the President made an artful turn. He talked about how the community of Newtown has inspired the nation, as people have reached out to one another with love and care. Then he addressed the responsibilities of parenthood, how having a child is “like having your heart outside of your body all the time, walking around.” From there he moved to the notion that we all bear responsibility for every child “because we’re counting on everybody else to help look after ours.” That sense of shared responsibility laid the groundwork for the policy section of his speech, describing what it means to meet the obligation of caring for our children and our fellow citizens.

“We’re not doing enough,” said the President. “And we will have to change.” He went on, “Surely we can do better than this.” It can be politically toxic to try to make any progress on gun legislation, given the power of the gun lobby and Americans’ fierce determination to be able to own all kinds of lethal weapons. But Obama seemed to suggest he would support a renewal of an assault weapons ban that would prevent people from buying firearms like the military-style Bushmaster .223 semi-automatic rifle, which gunned down the children in Newtown.

Obama didn’t spend much time on the notion that he was going to pass new laws or institute policy changes. The mental health question is an especially thorny one. Though we can all agree that there should be services available, it’s difficult to imagine how expanded mental health services would have helped a young man who was reportedly from a family that had financial means and a mother who had apparently devoted herself to his care, home-schooling him and staying home in an effort to make his troubled life more tolerable.

Still, the President committed to doing something. Perhaps the most powerful line in the speech was this simple statement: “Are we really prepared to say that we’re powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard? Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?”

Obama’s words seemed to be laying a foundation for new legislation and renewed efforts to enforce the gun laws that exist. If he can achieve those things, this country will be a safer place. But it will be a struggle to find legislation that can block a mentally disturbed young person with access to legally procured guns from committing another atrocity.

In the absence of a policy prescription that could prevent another Newtown, the President turned back to consolation, talking about the awesome responsibility we all bear to take care of our children. Then he did a simple, powerfully moving thing. He read out the names of all of the children killed on Friday, to audible wails and crying from the audience.

The reception to the President’s speech has been almost all positive. In the usual quarters that would be prone to criticize, there was only praise. Though on Fox News, Charles Krauthammer pronounced the speech “highly political,” he could hardly get specific about what he meant. On the National Review website, there is a piece suggesting that schools would be safer if staff could be armed and a thoughtful story by D.J. Jaffe about changes in mental health law that could protect the public from the violent mentally ill. But no critiques of the Presidents words.

David Frum has a piece on CNN.com saying that if the President takes on gun control at the Congressional level, he could chip away at the political capital he needs to pass other crucial legislation, like a tax plan to avoid the fiscal cliff. Frum also thinks that a move for gun control needs to come from the grassroots, not from the political arena.

In combing through commentary, I find no one who suggests the President’s remarks yesterday were not eloquent and consoling. By staying away from any specific policy proposals, he avoided the minefield of an immediate attack by the gun lobby or the potentially thorny civil liberties questions posed by increased scrutiny of people with mental illness. He struck exactly the right tone at a time of national tragedy and led us all into the conversation we need to have about how we can prevent another mass shooting.

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I’m still having trouble, after reading your piece, figuring out how his talking is somehow leadership at its best. Leadership would have been to not let funding for school security to fall by the wayside.

Nothing you wrote showed how his speech was leadership. It showed how he is charismatic and danced a fine line that allowed him to console and stay away from politically insensitive comments, but there wasn’t any leadership there. Any motivational speaker can do that.

Thank you for your thoughtful comment. I thought the President led by helping the residents of Newtown, and everyone watching the speech, know how to cope emotionally with the tragedy. I also think he spurred a conversation about what we can do to prevent violent acts like these in the future.

Thanks to you for participating in the conversation by posting that intriguing item about a lapse in federal funding for school security. The provision that would have put police officers in schools seems especially apt right now.

” I also think he spurred a conversation about what we can do to prevent violent acts like these in the future.”

And yet in a previous comment you contradict yourself by saying the following: “ I have to disagree with you that Obama politicized the speech. He didn’t mention gun legislation or any other kind of legislative action.”

So which did he do? Offer a mournful elegy or try to use this tragedy as an opportunity to advance his own agenda?

Answer advance his political agenda using whatever means necessary. Now real leadership would require the following”

President Obama assigns mental health issues to his wife. Established immediatly a charity to improve our mental health system. Get his wealthy friends to pony up a lot of money to get started. Move to eliminate any laws that prevent dangerous mental cases from being identified and restrained / treated. Lots more could be done on the real problem, we have some disturbed individuals running around.

Thanks for responding. I think the President offered an elegy that wasn’t just mournful but was also uplifting. He talked about the heroism of the teachers at Sandy Hook, the strength of the Newtown community, the greater world beyond the tragedy and he emphasized universal support for the affected families. He also got a policy discussion going without pushing a specific agenda.

Thanks for this provocative comment. As for mental health laws, I recommend this story in National Review http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/335767/five-point-action-plan-president-obama-reduce-violence-mentally-ill-d-j-jaffe. I support Jaffe’s recommendations. Sadly though, in the Newtown case, as far as we know, the shooter had no history of violence, so those legal proposals would not apply.

There is also a story on Forbes.com today about billionaire Mort Zuckerman pledging $200 million to mental health research, though his pledge seems to be unrelated to the Newtown shooting http://www.forbes.com/sites/luisakroll/2012/12/17/billionaire-mort-zuckerman-pledges-200-million-to-mental-health-research/

I agree that he did these things, but my concept of leadership requires a lot more from a person who is president. Perhaps we will see more actions in the near days and a realization that nothing will 100% eliminate these sorts of situations. We have to start from truth to make improvements, thinking that anything is a silver bullet is a big mistake.

Well unless I am mistaken the president’s first duty is to uphold the constitution, not to protect children in school from insane people. Now I want these children protected as much if not more than anybody, but I also realize that the world is not perfect, we have a constitution and risk must be taken. Simple!!!

Well said, Susan, I agree. I was so moved by the speech and I did in fact notice all that you pointed out. He struck just the right tone. I also believe that this is one issue that must gain sufficient traction at the grass roots level or it will fail regardless of how much political capital the President tries to expend. Partly because of the strength of the gun lobby, but also because there are no easy answers. I think a good start would be to enact legislation that increases school security and then work on limiting the ability for citizens to purchase semi- and auto- matic weaponry as well as increasing background checks on gun purchasers, require safety and gun use training, and offer easier access to mental health treatment.

Thank you Jay. I agree with everything you’re saying here. The grass roots are tough when it comes to gun control, since the pro-gun lobby is so well funded. But I’m hopeful that outrage over the Newtown shooting will spur further support of gun control. I know readers will disagree with me but I am in favor of ultra-strict controls.